One Week Lyrics

How to Format Lyrics:

  • Type out all lyrics, even repeating song parts like the chorus
  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
  • If you don’t understand a lyric, use [?]

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About

Genius Annotation

A quick summary of what’s going on here; the protagonist knows that he messed up with his girl, but he doesn’t want to admit it yet so he waits it out. The rap verses were recorded by Ed Robertson just spur of the moment, they’re just a bunch of pop culture references.

The only people who don’t like this song are generally people who take themselves too seriously.

At the same time, for the serious people, we can spin this and say all the random pop culture references is the protagonist’s mind trying to find a solution before the days are up. The panicking causes the protagonist to just spill everything in his mind, and the fact that it’s mostly pop culture references tells you:

  1. The protagonist is a pretty lazy and clumsy boyfriend from all the quotes said by the girlfriend and the consistent messing up. He isn’t even aware since his “mind” is on his “sleeve”.

  2. A commentary on American media; how it makes Americans lazy and take “off my shirt” – “Sailor moon… Anime Boobs… make me think the wrong thing”, hmmmmm? Domestic violence is also referred to; “Five days since you tackled me”, so American media may cause domestic violence.

But again, this is in order to persuade the serious people, as it should be noted to all those serious people that “I’m the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral”.

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

What did Barenaked Ladies say about "One Week"?
Genius Answer

According to Ed Robertson in 2018:

I had the basic structure of the song, the choruses, which is kind of this silly deconstruction of an argument between two people who actually really like each other. The kind of stubborn argument that drags out over a week. I had that, and I wanted to do some kind of rappy verses but they always sucked every time I tried to write them. It was finally Steve [Page, Barenaked Ladies co-vocalist] who said, “Why don’t you just freestyle it, like you do in every show? The freestyles you do off the top of your head are better than the stuff you’re trying to write.” I wasn’t very sophisticated at that time in terms of the whole home studio or recording equipment. So I set up a video camera and I freestyled like four verses and I edited those down into the two verses that became “One Week.” So our biggest single ever, our #1 single, was written in three-and-a-half minutes.

I thought it would be a bonus track or a b-side. It was one of the last songs I submitted to the record company and when Sue Drew, who was our A&R person at the time, said, “We wanna lead with ‘One Week,’” I actually thought she was joking. I thought she was making a dig at me, like this is the stupidest fucking song I ever heard. Which I would’ve agreed with. I labored over so many songs on that record, and tried to make them, you know, super deep and meaningful and soulful and tried to nail them emotionally, and then this totally ridiculous song that I improvised, that makes no sense at all, goes to #1.

Do the rap verses relate to the song's narrative?
Genius Answer

According to Ed Robertson in 2018:

Absolutely not. It is a hodgepodge of pop culture references and inside jokes. I can tell you where every single line comes from and what it means, but they don’t relate to each other, and they don’t relate to the chorus.

Credits
Written By
Acoustic Guitar
Backing Vocals
Keyboards
Electric Guitar
Double Bass
Release Date
July 7, 1998
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